Cops yesterday dismantled a massive interstate gun-running ring – aided by eagle-eyed detectives who spotted one suspect stashing his arsenal of weapons in a Porta-Potty.
Undercover detectives in “Operation Tripod” posed as gun buyers and were able to purchase a total of 116 guns over the course of a year, Commissioner Ray Kelly announced yesterday.
He said the black-market buys cost cops $118,000, twice the retail value of the assorted firearms.
The sting netted five men and one woman: two from New York and four from Ohio. A seventh man is still on the run.
Daniel Awuku, 34, of Brooklyn and Yusef Logan, 31, of Queens were collared. The out-of-towners under arrest are alleged ringleader Douglas Wellington, 25, Amire Smith, 23, Achsah Washington, 21, and Matthew Brown, 19.
Cops are looking for a third New Yorker: Marvin Mrythil, 26, of Queens.
A search of Mrythil’s house turned up an additional 9mm handgun and 200 small bags of marijuana, Kelly said.
The guns would be illegally bought from the Ohioans and then resold in the city, authorities said.
Kelly said 72 percent of guns used in all crimes in New York City originate from out of state but added, “It’s rare to apprehend the out-of-town supplier here.”
Wellington and his associates made the 500-mile trip periodically to sell guns in Brooklyn and Queens, according to Kelly.
Most of the guns illegally sold to undercover cops came from stores in Ohio and Maine. Kelly said that yesterday morning, undercover detectives bought 17 handguns, and all of them were new and still in their boxes. The cache included 10 .9mms, four .40-calibers, two .45-calibers and a .380-caliber pistol.
The group was busted in Queens on Farmers Boulevard and North Conduit Boulevard at about 5 a.m., the NYPD said.
If not for savvy detectives staking out the scene before the sale, the guns may not have even been found.
Undercover cops noticed Brown arrive near the scene early and place two large boxes – with the 17 guns inside – in a Porta-Potty at a construction site before going to meet for the exchange. The guns were later recovered.
“A less-experienced team of detectives might have missed that ploy,” Kelly said.
The involved cops were from the NYPD’s Firearms Investigation Unit, which lost two members in 2003.
Detectives James Nemorin and Rodney Andrews were killed March 10, 2003, in a botched buy-and-bust.
In a separate investigation, the NYPD’s Gangs Division seized 23 guns from members of the Crips gang on Pennsylvania Avenue in Brooklyn last week, Kelly announced.
Not including today’s guns, he said 430 illegal guns have been taken off the streets of New York since the beginning of the year.
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Handguns seized yesterday:
10: 9mm
4: .40 caliber
2: .45 caliber
1: .380 caliber